


May Day, Mayday, M'aidez

by Corisanna



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Complete, Friendship, Gen, Goddesses, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Interquel, Madokami, Rebellion Story Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 19:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10815246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corisanna/pseuds/Corisanna
Summary: The new world has no Madoka Kaname, but the Law of Cycles still contains "Madoka" and cannot help but view the world through the lens of "Madoka." Of course she would continue to spark bright friendships that shine through mist and sunshine and rainbows, overwhelming any shadows. Mostly.





	May Day, Mayday, M'aidez

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The other night while writing for my main story, I thought, “Ah, it's Walpurgis Night.” Other than that, I'm not sure where this all came from. POV is all over the place, but this is meant to be a loose story that pops around the way a deity like the Law of Cycles' attention would pop around. Not sure if I pulled off “vaguely dizzying.”
> 
> I meant to post it on May first, but life happened, as it tends to do. :T  
> So happy belated Walpurgis Night!  
> PS: You may want to Google up photos of Brocken spectres if you've never seen one.

§ x § x §

§ x § x §

§ x § x §

 

**MAY DAY, MAYDAY, M'AIDEZ**

 

§ x § x §

 

The entity that had once been a girl named Madoka Kaname came to think of May Day as her birthday.

With her being permeating the cosmos as it now did, Madoka-- for she still thought of herself as simply Madoka, though she was now generally called the Law of Cycles-- had acquired an appreciation for fine strokes of coincidence that built into symbolism. It had been the first of May when she had shed her human existence and ascended to a form of divinity. Not only was she reborn, but the entire universe was reborn alongside her. It had been exhilarating, her awareness unfurling like endlessly blossoming roses, a gentle spring after a harsh winter. Stars, hearts, souls, all dazzling and new to her. She breathed hope and laughed sunshine. Her existence everywhere and nowhere was humbling sometimes. Painful at others, as she saw all the ugliness in the world in addition to all that was bright and beautiful. But the universe was always, always awe-inspiring. That was worth celebrating, for her.

Centuries of chatter with dear Walburga-- the original soul at the heart of the dread Witch Walpurgisnacht of The World Before-- made Madoka very aware that the timing of the grand Witch's descent had always been tied to the stroke of midnight in a certain little town in Germany, no matter where in the world she might descend. It was one of the perplexing circular paradoxes Madoka was most fond of, really. The Law of Cycles was born on the first of May to erase Witches, the date effectively chosen by a Witch that could no longer exist in the first place. Technically, Madoka had erased any need for a mortal version of herself to transcend her mortal existence. Then again, she had also erased her mortal existence altogether. It was wonderfully confusing.

Walburga was one of her favorite magical girls. She supposed she shouldn't play favorites as the Law of Cycles, but the part of her that was still Madoka was particularly proud of her. Walburga was one of that rare breed of contractees that persisted past girlhood through wit, determination, and conservative application of magic. Madoka watched her blossom from a headstrong maiden and mature into a stately abbess in the eighth century AD. Though Walburga's vessel aged, her soul stayed young and she fought off the Wraiths with courage and cunning until she was an old woman. Madoka had been happy to gather Walburga to her at long last. At her request, Madoka had opened Walburga's perception, allowed her look into her past to reflect on all she had achieved in her life. Madoka had felt like a proud mother. A hundred years later, she had excitedly tugged Walburga along to hover in the rafters with her when the church she had served so faithfully canonized her as a saint.

It had been the first of May.

Though Walburga's church had designated the February date of her death as her feast day, Walburga had wrinkled her nose and said she much preferred the date of her canonization because it was such an important date to the Law of Cycles. Madoka often let those magical girl souls who were curious peek into her memories of The World Before to see what had become of them-- to learn about their prospective Witch selves. It was apparently an interesting topic for the souls she had gathered to reflect upon and grow from. Walburga was one of the curious ones who wanted to continue her spiritual growth, so she was very aware of how deeply involved her other self had been in the birth of the Law of Cycles. So she stubbornly clung to the date of her canonization and used what influence she could exert-- tiny, strategically-timed miracles here and there-- to reinforce the people's linkage of her to what became Walpurgis Night. Madoka indulged her fondly, perfectly willing to share her “birthday.”

It really was funny how the universe looped around sometimes.

Walpurgis Night became a holiday to the many souls the Law of Cycles had collected. The invisible spirits loved cavorting about the European countryside bonfires the living set up, whirling through the dancing people with infectious merriment. The humans would probably be horrified to find out their rituals _attracted_ the once-could-have-been-Witches instead of driving them off, but many of the sassier souls told Madoka that knowing that actually made the spirit party more fun. Madoka would laugh and dance with her girls, her presence bringing the fleeting scent of roses to the humans wherever she chose to descend.

But Madoka and Walburga's mutual favorite for their birthday celebrations was the Brocken spectre.

It all started one May Day when they sat atop the peak of the Brocken to watch the dawn after a night of partying. The dusting of high altitude snow that had yet to melt glittered at first light. As the sky's darkness gradually washed out into lightness, a pair of men bundled up in furs crested the summit and unwittingly shared the view with them. Sun at their backs, they gazed down into the swirling fog and mist of the valley. Both men suddenly gasped in fear.

The spirits saw nothing unusual. Madoka and Walburga exchanged curious glances and floated to peer over the men's shoulders. From the men's perspective, their shadows were cast into the churning mist below, never still, forms seeming to take a life of their own as they stretched far into the distance. Each man's shadow seemed to have thick, disturbingly long legs with squat torsos that tapered up into a triangle with distorted heads at their apexes. When one man dropped his walking stick, his phantom arm jittered around in the mist like a tentacle. Around both shadows was a faintly colorful, circular glow.

The men had no understanding of the physics of atmospheric light and water vapor, so they were understandably terrified. At least they were frozen in shock instead of running in blind panic. Possibly off a cliff. That would be unfortunate. One man muttered urgent prayers.

Madoka looked at Walburga, trusting the former abbess to have an idea about how to soothe brethren of her religion.

Walburga tapped a finger against her chin and looked at Madoka. “Can you make the rainbows brighter? Like a holy glory?”

“Of course!” the goddess said with a brilliant smile.

Madoka dissociated somewhat, dispersing herself in the fabric of existence nearby. She coaxed water vapor into more perfect spheres and arranged them just so. As the sun shifted higher, the corona around the men's shadows waxed into brilliant double rainbows. With a _flex_ , she made the glories flare so brightly they overcame the shadows, then abruptly dispersed the patch of mist that had caused the phenomenon in the first place with a wave of her insubstantial hands. Morning sunshine warmed the landscape. The two men stared, whispered fervent prayers of thanks, and hustled back down the ridge.

Both spirits were fascinated by what had happened. They observed and played with the phenomenon on other mountains, in other valleys, on hilltops and towers where fog rolled in off the sea, but they always came back to the Brocken. It was admittedly morbid for both spirits. Walburga was aware that the double rainbow glory had followed her Witch form in The World Before, twisted into something wan and unholy. Madoka remembered all the timelines in which an abomination had hatched from her corrupted Soul Gem and flown skyward, an enormous shadow eerily similar to the figures that showed up within the rainbow glory.

“We really do compliment one another, don't we?” Walburga said pensively from their perch atop a crude lighthouse whose lamp had been snuffed out by a storm. The skies were clearing, but the storm had left behind the right foggy conditions to create a Brocken spectre out of the tower's shadow. “Or at least my other self complimented you. I think.”

Madoka hummed affectionately and played with the mist. “You still do,” she murmured as she favored a ragged Spanish galleon with a gust of wind to nudge it away from foundering on the hidden shoals.

Walburga straightened her shoulders with pride.

They had great fun over the centuries. Bonfires, misty rainbows, dancing, and always, always the Brocken.

§ x § x §

Time flowed like a pleasant stream. The Law of Cycles let it take her where it willed, gathering her little ones to her when their jobs were done. Time was immaterial until she noticed the birth of Mami Tomoe. One after another, her first friends were born.

And she was not.

Her once-upon-a-time friends were all adorable little things with beautiful souls. They had all been able to see her when they were babies, but their perception of her faded once their happy, wordless babbling was replaced by full sentences. They were too young to remember her, but that was fine. She watched them grow with interest, checking on them from time to time.

Madoka felt more human than she had in ages when Mami's soul flickered and she was instantly at the scene of the car crash that had taken the girl's parents from her.

Should she interfere?

As powerful and omniscient as she was, there was still something greater than her. She knew it. Sometimes she thought of it as fate, but she couldn't be sure. Would interfering here defy it? The Law of Cycles tentatively nudged at the critically injured people's souls, intending to bolster their ability to cling to life until help arrived. A force rebuffed her, as it sometimes did. All she could do was settle back sadly and watch events unfold. So Mami was orphaned and made a contract. Then Kyōko made a contract and was orphaned. Then her precious Homura lost her parents. Curiously, they were briefly joined by a girl she had never met in The World Before. Madoka peeked back through time and space and discovered that Nagisa Momoe would have been the Sweets Witch; her attachment to Mami as an older sister figure in this world became morbidly sweeter with that knowledge. She had made a hasty wish to share a cheesecake with her dying mother because the woman wanted to so badly; she regretted not wishing to cure her mother. Nagisa had been with Madoka's once-upon-a-time friends for only three weeks when her mother died, she fell to despair, and was collected by the Law of Cycles. So much tragedy. The only one of the Mitakihara girls untouched by family tragedy was Sayaka, who still contracted to heal Kyōsuke Kamijō's hand.

Homura was an interesting case. She woke on March sixteenth, as she had for ninety-six time loops. This would be her ninety-seventh. However, she did not remember anything. Madoka watched as she transferred to Mitakihara Middle School, still recovering from surgery and sporting her glasses and braids. As in the first timeline, she was a timid girl who was ashamed of the not-quite-whispers of her classmates at her poor performance in gym and math. Then she was saved from a Wraith by Mami. She soon contracted with a wish for a healthy body. Madoka was a bit put out by that, as Homura could have made a different wish and healed her body with her new magic like she had in so many other timelines. But no matter; it was all the same in the end.

Homura's Soul Gem spawned a bow instead of a shield this time. Madoka watched her struggle with battle and dreams and déjà vu for six weeks. The poor girl wondered if she was losing her mind and concealed it from the rest of the quartet of magical girls. Madoka tried to ease her dreams when she could, but was reluctant to interfere too much lest she accidentally do harm. Even as a deity, Madoka sometimes worried about messing up. It was a stubborn trait from her human days.

Then May first arrived.

Sayaka's valiant last stand was magnificent. When Madoka gathered her once-friend to her, she touched her mind and Sayaka's spirit went wide-eyed and hugged her. They laughed tearfully and rejoiced.

At the same time, another facet of Madoka watched solemnly as the dam holding back Homura's memories burst and hit her mind with the force of a tsunami. Madoka brushed against Homura's Soul Gem in an attempt to comfort her. If the magical girl had noticed, she didn't react. Instead, she let Kyōko and Mami presume her tears were for Sayaka and staggered away in a daze.

The day after the birth of the Law of Cycles had been brutal for her friend. Shock had carried the girl through the first night as she reeled from suddenly remembering the ninety-seven six-week loops she had completed. But upon seeing the dawn of May second for the first time in what had been, from her perspective, eleven years, two months, and eight days since the _last_ time she expected a May second, she had been crushed by the finality. She spent the day holed up in her house alone, sobbing uncontrollably in her grief.

Madoka felt like she had been reborn that day, but her friend could only see the human death before the celestial rebirth. It broke Madoka's heart. It was the first time in centuries that she didn't dance and make rainbows on the Brocken for her birthday. Homura was her very best friend. No part of Madoka's vast consciousness could be happy when her Homura was in such anguish. Her other girls understood. Walburga had long been the Law of Cycles' loyal deputy, after a fashion, but even she knew that her goddess was waiting for a handful of special souls. The day the Law of Cycles' timeline finally merged perfectly with Homura Akemi's-- yet another significance for May first-- was essentially the awakening of a prophet or oracle. In the old manner of speaking, that was-- a living person who had walked with her patron deity, had spoken with them directly, and had their benevolent attention. Though the Law of Cycles was downcast in her sympathy for the new prophet, the souls she had gathered still thought the event worth commemorating. Walburga led the other girls in a more solemn celebration than usual. The glow between bonfires was thick with spectral whispers about the events that currently were and had once been in Japan.

For the first time, the soul of Sayaka Miki joined them. They all knew their goddess held her in high regard and welcomed her with even more cheer than they usually greeted newly-ascended magical girls. Sayaka, for her part, was so very new that the Walpurgis Night festivities were somewhat overwhelming. Reluctant at first, she soon joined the chatter and dancing. Even so, she often drew away from the other girls, flitting to various bonfires ahead of the dawn line as she experimented with movement without a body. She would contemplate the flames and sift through the memories of the life she had lived and the many other lives she could have led. The additional depth in her understanding of Kyōko made her seek flames. Basking in their warmth, Sayaka wryly thought of herself as a fluttering moth, attracted first to Kyōko and then to fire as a proxy. Such jumbled thoughts! The other girls understood, to an extent, and gave her space. Walburga stayed near enough to let Sayaka know she had support if she needed it, but otherwise waited for the new girl to make the first move. Sayaka cautiously approached her atop a maypole and asked her if she was a coward for not immediately seeking Kyōko because she didn't want to see her grief. Walburga had smiled in that wise way her life as an abbess had instilled in her and told her it was perfectly understandable that she needed to gather herself before she could do something of the sort. After all, magical girls were _human_ souls. Sayaka had settled on the maypole with her, perched back to spectral back as they sat silently through the rest of the night.

They kept vigil even as the fires dimmed into smoldering red embers and the living revelers sleepily left the grounds. They stayed until morning and watched the living return and set up more maypoles. Sayaka looked at the flowers and ribbons and started babbling about Mami Tomoe. Walburga stifled giggles with one hand as Sayaka veered off into amusing anecdotes, gesturing wildly and doing voices.

No wonder the Law of Cycles was so fond of Sayaka Miki!

§ x § x §

“Sorry I'm late,” Madoka said to Sayaka and Walburga, who had moved to another town with a larger maypole.

Sayaka laughed. “I'm sure a goddess is entitled to a free tardy now and then.” She swung her legs childishly. “Teacher pardons you, Miss Madokami!”

Walburga failed to keep herself from snorting, but held her laughter back with a hand over her mouth.

“W-wait, what?!” Madoka blurted in embarrassment.

“What? It suits you,” Sayaka said with a teasing grin. “It's true, isn't it? Ma~ do~ ka~ mi~.” Little blue musical notes popped next to her head like bubbles as she sang each syllable, then glittered around her when she noticed and giggled.

Madoka floated in front of them, arms crossed, starry skirts billowing behind her, and pouted with all her adorable might.

Walburga lost it and laughed until she cried.

Sayaka joined them atop the Brocken the next day. “Better late than never,” Walburga had said with a smile when Madoka asked if she wanted to go even though their birthday was over. Sayaka took to playing with the mist with enviable ease.

“How's Homura taking it?” Sayaka asked quietly as she tried to hold the mist around them in defiance of the late morning sun. _Tried_ being the operative word.

Madoka sighed and looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap where she sat atop her favorite old pine. “Not well.” She closed her eyes. “I'm leaving a piece of me to try to help her sleep. She might be able to notice me if she wasn't in so much pain. It clouds perception, you know?”

“Mmm.” Sayaka gave up on the mist and distracted herself trying to play cat's cradle with her new musical stave magic. “From what you showed me, I can see why,” she muttered. Scowling, she dropped the uncooperative magic and looked up at Madoka. “It's not fair.”

“No. It's not,” Madoka softly agreed.

Sayaka firmed her face, took a bold stance, and planted her hands on her hips. “Well, she'll join us soon enough, right?”

The goddess opened her eyes and Sayaka got distracted by the pools of cosmic gold. Madoka smiled. “She will.”

“We're gonna have to throw a _huuuuge_ party when she comes upstairs,” Sayaka trilled after blinking away the afterimage of those eyes. She spun in a circle, arms wide. “May Day will happen on whatever day it finally happens! Even if it's winter! I'll do the music! Mami can do the decorations! And you and Homura can finally hug it out!”

Madoka straightened and smiled coyly. “And maybe by then _you_ can finally hug it out with Kyōko!”

Sayaka jerked to a stop, cheeks pink. “Hold up wait what say what now what?”

“I thought so,” Walburga cooed.

“Wait what thought what? What?”

The goddess laughed and rolled off the tree, then swooped down into the valley. “Come on, girls! Let's go find a place for Sayaka to practice her Brocken spectres!”

Walburga soared after her, laughing as Sayaka stamped a foot and shouted, “Hey!”

“Come along, Little Mermaid!” Walburga sang. “It'll be dawn in eastern North America soon!”

“It's nice and foggy in Appalachia!” Madoka chirped. “Lots of trees to use!”

Sayaka leapt into the air and caught up with them, scowling in embarrassment. “Are you making an apple joke?!”

“I wasn't, but _now_ I am!” Madoka laughed. She turned to Walburga. “Let's help Sayaka find a place to take Kyōko to someday!”

Sayaka sputtered denials in their wake as they dove through reality to jump ahead of the sun.

§ x § x §

If Walburga was the Law of Cycles' deputy, Sayaka became her knight.

Almost entirely by attitude, admittedly, since there were no real threats to the goddess, but still. She got on swimmingly with Jeanne d'Arc and joined the swarm of girls who loved to visit fencing matches and Renaissance fairs to observe sword fights. Other water-wielders welcomed her into their visits to seas, waterfalls, fountains, and water sports; she accompanied the musically-inclined girls to symphonies around the world and dragged new friends to watch Kyosuke. In between, Sayaka watched over her original magical girl team in Mitakihara with Nagisa. She frowned and flagged Madoka when Homura told the Incubator about the other timelines-- about the very different magical girl system.

“I don't like this,” Nagisa said worriedly.

“It's too interested,” Sayaka muttered.

Madoka frowned at the creature.

“What's Homura thinking?” Sayaka complained. “She's usually so tight-lipped.”

“She may think Mami and Kyōko won't believe her. She knows the Incubator knows time travel is possible,” Madoka said solemnly. “After all she's been through, I wouldn't be surprised if she _needs_ to talk it out. It's a heavy burden to carry alone.” After a moment of thought, the goddess said, “I think I'll need to try to talk to her more. I didn't want to keep opening the wound, but I think she needs it.”

Sayaka blinked in surprise and said, “Wait. Back up. The little creep knows about time travel?”

Smiling conspiratorially and holding one finger to her lips as though sharing a secret, the Law of Cycles said, “Homura isn't the first girl to make a time travel wish in the last several millennia.” She winked and added, “Homura is just the one who endured the longest. Even in The World Before.”

Nagisa and Sayaka let out simultaneous _Ahhh_ s of understanding.

§ x § x §

After that day, Sayaka and Nagisa spent more time watching the remaining trio of magical girls. The Law of Cycles asked her other girls to pick an Incubator terminal anywhere in the world and follow it to watch for suspicious activity. Well, more suspicious than usual. They eagerly complied. Then Madoka turned her attention to Homura and tried whispering to her. It worked despite the psychological turmoil that interfered with the girl's perception. Sometimes, Homura would reply to her or call for her. After Mami and Kyōko caught her a few times and began to worry for her sanity, Homura simply left town. Abandoned her life and wandered the world.

Time remained Homura's ally and enemy alike. The magical girl learned to dull the pain. Madoka felt a bittersweet pride when her friend stood atop the Golden Gate Bridge and announced out loud her intent to protect the world Madoka had been so determined to save. She was unhappy that her friend had abandoned Mitakihara to do so, though. Not because she didn't want her friend to travel, of course, but because she hated to see Homura isolate herself. She was reinforcing her own misery. All Madoka could do was offer encouragement by giving Homura signs. So in the foggy dawn of San Francisco, the Law of Cycles reached out and moved the mist to catch Homura's shadow and make a Brocken spectre.

Homura had looked at it in confusion at first, but as the goddess kept rearranging the mist to accommodate the changing angle of the sun and maintain the glory longer, Homura hesitantly said, “Mado...ka?”

Madoka smiled and poured herself into intensifying the rainbow glory as brightly as possible.

Tears spilled down Homura's cheeks, but Madoka thought they were good tears. “You... approve?”

The sun was getting to the wrong angle to maintain the Brocken spectre, so Madoka let go of the mist and gathered herself next to Homura. With great determination, she reached to Homura's red hair bow and tugged on the knot a few times, imitating a nod. Homura tilted her head up and slowly lifted her hand to reverently touch the bow herself. Madoka poured warmth into Homura's hand when it overlapped with her own and made the air thick with the scent of roses.

Homura's happiness spiked and she briefly saw two faint points of sparkling gold, but the unfairness of their separation struck her again and the pain muddied her perception.

The Law of Cycles tried to encourage Homura as frequently as possible. The former time traveler soon learned that she got the most blatant signs of her lost friend on towers and spires and trees when they were surrounded by thick mist at dawn. She could always count on Brocken spectres with brilliant prismatic glories that lasted longer than they should have and a tug on the red bow that had once been Madoka's.

Homura loved the twofold circular rainbows that would form, but her shadow in their center was a constant reminder of their separation. She became very fond of double rainbows that did not include shadows-- one rainbow each for the two friends, nothing but bright happy colors. It was not something she wanted to mention aloud, though-- she didn't want to hurt Madoka, who was trying her best to cheer her. So Homura sought the right conditions for Brocken spectres as often as possible despite the pain with which her shadow sabotaged Madoka's intent.

§ x § x §

Time passed. The Law of Cycles could count her birthdays if she wished, but it was unimportant to her. What mattered at the moment was that, to her beloved friend Homura, this would be her _first_ birthday. Her Soul Gem's endurance was finally wearing thin from her long depression. That she had lasted so long was a testament to her stubborn determination. Madoka half expected to be gathering her soul on yet another May first, so she was taken quite by surprise when the Incubators captured Homura. On May first, of all days. Madoka didn't know if Incubators were capable of having a sick sense of humor, but sometimes it certainly seemed so.

The Law of Cycles reached out to Sayaka and Nagisa. They came instantly. Sayaka's anger surged like a tide, the image of Oktavia flickering around her. Nagisa cried. Madoka could only stare dully in shock. Then they figured out the Incubators' plan and the Law of Cycles became furious for the first time in millennia.

Madoka invisibly floated in the amphitheater the Incubators gathered around to observe their captive. She pressed her hands against the seal around her friend's Soul Gem and tried to retrieve it to no avail. Nagisa and Sayaka joined her, but they couldn't break it. The Law of Cycles reached out to all her girls; they swarmed around the seal and tried to crack it with all their might. And failed.

The entire magical girl pantheon watched in horror as Homura's Soul Gem turned pitch black. They knew from their goddess' memories what was likely happening; that the girl who had arguably been the instigator of their salvation-- for the simple human Madoka Kaname would never have had the power to sustain her wish without time travel enhancement of her karmic destiny-- _that_ girl was now being forced to experience what she had helped them escape. Right when she was about to be reunited with the being she had protected through so much suffering. It was beyond cruel. Beyond outrage. It was an atrocity.

Fine cracks spiderwebbed across the Soul Gem's surface. There were small flashes of color as the magic within tried to escape. Then it turned in on itself. The flock of magical girls startled as the Soul Gems of Mami Tomoe and Kyōko Sakura sped past them, pierced the barrier, and disappeared into Homura's ingrown Grief Seed. Several other plain souls were drawn in shortly thereafter.

“ _How?!_ ” many of the girls raged.

“Do-- do you feel that?” Nagisa whispered.

Sayaka held up a hand, splayed her fingers, and tugged back. “Yeah,” she muttered. “Is she trying to pull us in?”

“I don't feel anything,” Walburga said doubtfully.

“Me, neither,” agreed Jeanne.

“I do,” Madoka said softly. Her girls all looked to her and found a distant expression on her face. “It's an... invitation. To enter her labyrinth.”

Makeda tilted her head and squinted at the barrier. “Only for people she knows?”

“It would seem to be the thing they all have in common,” Sanyukta observed.

They all silently watched their goddess as she mulled her options. She closed her eyes, bowed her head, then looked up with her face set in determination. “I'm going in.”

Alarm rippled through the pantheon. Two just stared at the goddess grimly.

The Law of Cycles glanced between them. “Sayaka. Nagisa. Do you wish to join me? I will not force you.”

“Psssh, as _if_ I would miss a chance to see all of them again!” Sayaka snapped as she waved a hand dismissively.

Nagisa hesitated, looking at the barrier speculatively.

“Besides, how can I _not_ go? She saved us from hell,” Sayaka continued. The image of Oktavia flickered around her more prominently. “I'll be _damned_ if I don't try to save _her_ from it. Gotta return the favor, you know?”

The pantheon's attitude shifted into resolute acceptance. Their Witch forms from The World Before faded in and out of view. They directed an overwhelming sense of _how can we help?_ at their goddess.

Madoka smiled proudly at her girls. Then the Law of Cycles hardened her face and said, “Here's the plan.”

§ x § x §

Sayaka, faithful knight of the Law of Cycles, accompanies her goddess into battle.

Walburga, loyal deputy of the Law of Cycles, commands the pantheon in her goddess' stead.

The ascended souls of magical girls, devoted followers of the Law of Cycles, await the signal to lend their aid to their goddess.

§ x § x §

Every time Madoka Kaname transforms into her magical girl form, she always sees a dazzling circular rainbow. Just the one, which somehow strikes her as a bit wrong. Not wrong enough to be _bad_ , but just off enough to notice. She is never quite sure if the sight is real or imagined, but it feels like a friend.

§ x § x §

§ x § x §

§ x § x §

 

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So. That's that. *shrug*
> 
> And yes, I have stuff written for my main story. But I need to write scenes between scenes and this popped into my head almost entirely done. I had to evict it from my brain, so to speak. XD


End file.
